Sonic Superstars: A New 2D Sonic Game (Fall 2023)

Have tested on Switch now - doesn't seem to work there, either. Looking likely that Debug Menu access via a code is PC-only, folks.

 

It worked for me on Switch. 10 Y, then 2 X.

 

For me a good way to make bosses is a mix of sonic 1 and superstars. Act 1 with no boss; Act 2 with no boss; and Act 3 with a lengthy boss but basically no level. And the traditional fast bosses could be a miniboss in those character-exclusive levels.

 

Interesting - where did you try it? I went to the Main Menu and attempted it there per the instructions, but nothing happened when I did. Even tried it with X and Y reversed like you did, and still nothing. Very strange!

When it says "Main Menu", does it mean the menu with that title that appears after selecting a save file, or the title screen menu? If the former, was the save file you'd loaded a completed one or in-progress?

Good to hear it does work, but I'm curious to know exactly what I did wrong on my attempt...!

 

Sonic 1's third acts were full-length stages, you're thinking of CD, or perhaps the game gear games.

But also, no; there's no benefit to making bosses where you spend an inordinate amount of time waiting around to get your chance to hit them. If you want them to last longer, just give them more health and let us have to make decisions on how best to dodge and weave to kill it faster anyway.

 

The inconsistency of the music is such a shame. Listening to video reviews for this, often the music used will jump between Superstars and Mania. The level tracks in Superstars are so good, but damn, a lot of the idle and menu themes are really lame. So far the boss theme and hub world are a bit dreadful to listen to.

They really need to ver away from the Genesis soundfont. You'd think Mania wouldve taught them that they can evoke classic styles without being overly derivative and even bad!

 

The marketing went out of their way to say that pixel art is the past, yet the half the tracks cling to Genesis soundfont like it's 1993. The music direction is all over the place.

 

Update about the digital art book and original soundtrack for the digital deluxe edition. I see that they had put it back up but for some odd reason it says the Digital deluxe edition of Sonic Superstars is sold out which doesn't make sense since it's digital. There's no way for me to install it and it says I own it but yet can't install. Waiting on SEGA's response because I paid my money to get everything and I should have it and I'm not the only one who didn't get the digital art book and soundtrack.

 

The progression for this game is wack, too. Up until zone seven it feels like a standard Sonic nature-mechanical level progression, if a little mixed up. Press Factory Act 2 even wants to kill you, actively, conjuring a sense of urgency fitting for a final level: exploration be damned, all stops are pulled, the wave is about to crash. But the wave crashes far too early, and Golden Capital just feels so... alien. Instead of giving something in the way f new platforming challenges, the game delivers the most normal levels possible coupled with an ardent desire to abandon normal Sonic gameplay whenever it can get away with it -- and these are highlights of the game, don't get me wrong, but it never happens before that. Even in the third zone:

Spoiler: Zone 3 Spoilers

I thought the Breakout-Arkanoid part of Sky Temple would be an entire section with its own rules, like Frozen Base Act 2, the whole Sky Chase-like sectioon of Golden Capital Act 2, etc. But it was just two really, really short sections that were basically tied to normal platforming.

And then the game loses all its sense of progression. The very last arc (Frozen Base - Egg Fortress) restores some of that, which is pretty cool. But yeah, although I really liked Cyber Station an Egg Fortress Act 2 in a vacuum, and although I loved that some bosses were able to kill me more than a few times, levels 8 through 11 are definitely the game's lowest point in the grand scheme of things.

Also, question:

Spoiler: Zone 8 Spoilers

If you don't have all the emeralds by Golden Capital Act Knuckles, do you retrieve them afterwards anyway? Because if that's the case, what's the point of trying to get the emeralds before that?

 

Yesssss it's so damn weird. That's like making 3D models but having it voxel by default. If Cyber Station was the whole game

 

By the way, has anyone else encountered this bizarre glitch? When my husband and I were streaming the game, we went into the shop when prompted, and when we left it dumped us onto the world map for the last zone even though we were nowhere close to that, and the results are... confusing.

https://clips.twitch.tv/CuriousAbstruseLadiesOSkomodo-tb5HQeJb-BDfwaQU

 

Spoiler: I did it in my run

During my run, at the end of his act, Knuckles found the 3 missing emeralds behind a big ancient door. They were used by Trip in the cutscene, then I still didn't have them and needed to get them through special stages.

This all due to that cursed green emerald, I had to grind after the end of the game in order to get it.

 

Spoiler: That's great!

I got the last of them during Act Knuckles, so he didn't find anything behind that door lol. Weird though, what was the green one? I don't remember running into problems with that, but the last one did fuck me up

Ok that's the funniest glitch I've seen so far. The only really bizarre glitch I encountered while playing was in... Golden Capital, I think? I was simply warped back in the level and had to do a small section again. Weird, but nothing on this level.

 

Spoiler: Special Stage spoiler

That special stage with all the boosters that launch you up instead of forward, and where the emerald keeps flying to your left but seems impossible to reach even if you get close. Apparently there's a trick to get it easily, but I didn't know and thought that you had to stay as close as possible to the emerald else it would leave you behind forever; instead it seems to run in circle and you can just go the opposite direction and wait for it... I didn't test it personally, I've just read about it.

edit: can't seem to be able to make those quotes work on the first try lol

 

As dumb as Fang is, his bosses were the toughest in the game. If he were smarter, he’d use the chaos emeralds after he stole them from Knuckles. I can see Sega using him more going forward. It might be a good idea to use him as the main villain if there’s a DLC.

 

What I did was

Spoiler: Special Stage 5 Trick

simply get as high as possible and then fall while following the Emerald

 

I've listened to the whole OST now.

I don't know what the hell happened. TBH, a lot of the core melodies are pretty good (and will probably make for fantastic fan remixes, dare I say), but it's not just 'some' tracks that are composed in the faux genesis soundfonts, I think it's the majority. The mixing is all over the place.

Musically, this is "Sonic 5", with a few improvements, a few guest compositions, and worse menu songs. I don't hate this OST. I just wish it was up to the standards that other post Genesis titles set. Namely, 32 bit era stuff like Mania, 3D Blast Saturn, or R. Hell, even Adventure 1 is a really, really good model that this game should've followed.

But I'm guessing budget and time were both a factor? IDK. They're charging full price for it so... I just don't know.

I guess the Origins OST should've been our warning, as it's not like the game wasn't under production when it first came out.

Amusingly, SEGA does seem to listen to our feedback on stuff (the interviews about physics prove it), but it takes literal years for them to implement those ideas. Music in a classic game seems to be the next thing we'll wait a decade for them to get right on their own, without fan intervention.

Again, in all fairness. I don't hate all the songs at all. Some of the ones people criticized I kind of enjoy, even. But I am definitely let down by this. They knew exactly what songs to market, and which ones not too, so expectations were set in a somewhat misleading way.

Side rant incoming about more than just music...

Hell, the core game here is overall pretty good, dare I say. If the annoying bosses are the worst part, and patching in checkpoints fixes them, that's hardly a bad game at all. But... it's surrounded by so much publisher induced bullshit and problems that it's almost hilarious. It's just not an exact successor to what came before. But the 2 DRM, badly botched launch DLC, confusing music marketing? I mean, come on guys... You finally make a good game without a major fan developer, without game breaking bugs, and yet you STILL screw it up with publisher induced BS!? COME ON!

At least SEGA is far from alone here. Tons of AAA games have had horrible launches this year. This one's problems were so much more avoidable, though...

 

What you call dying cats, I call an orchestral masterpiece

 

I would schedule an appointment with an otolaryngologist if I were you.

 

Really enjoying this so far.